A biography for Jaleel Whitehasn’t been written yet.
“I always connected renting a car with being an adult. If you think about it, it's the last frontier of your youth. You can join the military at 18, drink when you're 21, but you can't rent a car.”
“The nature of television is that it's a beast with a lot of opinions. I don't consider myself typecast any more than Neil Patrick Harris was as Doogie Howser or James Gandolifini is as Tony Soprano.”
“I've been in this business 31 years. I've never had a movie deal.”
“We live in an age of sound bites and buzz words.”
“If you have to go back and spell-check the text you're about to send, you're saying too much.”
“I wasn't a kid trying to become famous. I wasn't a part of any Disney Channel wheelhouse. I was basically a black kid whose parents put him into the business so he could go to college.”
“Sometimes our awards process can be very political in terms of just driving personal agendas, and I think we forget.”
“I took opportunities, big or small, to show that I was a constant professional. I feel like the Sam Jackson of network TV drama.”
“I really chose a path after 'Grown Ups' of doing different things that I hadn't tried before, and just trying to take on those challenges.”
“You have to be respectful of pop culture, because people interpret it in the way they want.”
“Oh, the first dish I learned to make, I think I was about 10 years old, I made my dad spaghetti and broccoli for dinner when he got home from work, and it was, like, a surprise.”
“You need fans in high places, I always tell people. I don't care how talented you are.”
“There's a bit of hazing when it comes to the youth performers and a disbelief that you're capable of handling dramatic or comedic material on an adult level.”
“People don't necessarily identify me with doing adult things.”
“Writing is still on my slate.”
“As you get older, you start to understand you have to do what you need to do.”
“I learned physical comedy to a degree that most child actors never will. I really just became a student of it - became obsessed with it, to be quite honest.”
“I was fortunate to work with some very powerful producers like Tom Miller and Bob Boyett.”
“You get hate in this business growing up. When you're a young performer, you just don't get the credit for the work that you did. And it is what it is. You can't walk around with a chip on your shoulder.”
“I like women who talk smack.”